


Trust

by canadiankazz



Category: L.A. By Night (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst and Feels, Angst with a Happy Ending, Burns, Catharsis, F/M, Fix-It
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-09
Updated: 2020-03-09
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:15:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,071
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23078443
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/canadiankazz/pseuds/canadiankazz
Summary: Post Season 4 Episode 6 "Hollywood Forever." Jasper has to wait a long time for Eva to come home.
Relationships: Jasper/Eva
Comments: 8
Kudos: 23





	Trust

**Author's Note:**

> This one isn’t so much fluff as it is my semi-angsty attempt to write something to make me feel better after Season 4 Episode 6 ‘Hollywood Forever.’ It does have a happy ending, though. I promise. This was originally intended for a Fluff Fest fanfic prompt, but I decided to post it early on the advice of a friend who thought it would be good to share the catharsis with the vamily. Thank you to Cravatfiend and PuzzleDragon for the early feedback and encouragement.

It had been a hard few weeks.

Jasper tried to tell himself that it was fine, that Eva would come back, eventually. She asked him to trust her and he did. He didn’t trust many Kindred, but he trusted her.

Nothing about her being gone felt fine to him though. She had been the light in his cold, dark life and without her, he felt hopeless. Maybe things would be fine in the future, maybe not, but they sure as hell didn’t feel fine now.

She had left a lot of things behind in his sanctum when she left. Clothes, mostly, but also some books and some thaumaturgy tools as well. He was torn between packing them away and leaving them be. She could be back any night, and would want her belongings to be safe. He left them alone for a week, then he put everything of hers that he could find into a box in his closet. It hurt to do that, but he told himself he was just keeping her stuff neat and safe for her eventual return.

The others tried to keep him busy. Baron Nelli gave him puzzles and other jobs to do. Annabelle checked in on him. Victor texted him every few nights. They cared. They counted him as their own. He knew that. Though he never admitted it, neither out loud nor to himself, he was glad he didn’t have to rely too much on the labyrinth to keep him distracted during the long nights Eva was gone. There were too many memories of her down there now too.

“We’re here if you want to talk,” the coterie said to him.

But he didn’t want to talk, not to them, not about this. He had nothing to say. They cared, and he was glad they did, but they lived their lives high and visible. They didn’t have the deep understanding of what it meant to live apart, to happily abandon a society that was equally happy to abandon you. Eva had gotten that about him. It was something they had easily shared.

He had always feared that something like this was going to happen, that his relationship with Eva would be altogether too brief. Eva was lightning in a bottle. He firmly believed that she was, in so many ways, too good for him. Part of him had always known, from their first night they shared together in his sanctum, that this might not last. Something was going to drive them apart eventually. The universe had certainly tried many times to drive them apart. Chloe, attacks both away and at home, the Camarilla, their own Beasts… and now this. Still, they had found their way back to each other time and time again.

Is this just another one of those times?

Eva choosing to leave was, in many ways, worse than if she had been taken from him against their wills. He knew how to fight back against that, how to use his anger and fear as a tool to get her back. This scenario though, it made him feel lost and useless. There was nothing he could do but wait and be ready for if she did manage to let him know that she needed him again.

Jasper tried to be patient. He kept his eyes and ears open for any news that Eva’s mission was done, or that she was in trouble. For a long time, there was nothing.

“Trust me,” she had said. He did trust her. She was strong, powerful and capable. He knew that. It was what had attracted him to her in the first place. That and her kindness. She had never, not once, flinched her lovely face away from him because of the Nosferatu curse. If she ever had, it was due to his personal fuck-ups.

But even when she was mad enough with him to want to leave the city, she had always come back.

He _had_ to trust that she would come back. It was all he could do. She had promised she would, that she would be okay.

One night, many weeks later, news reached the coterie that there had been a fire at the Magic Castle. Millions of dollars in damage had been done. Several priceless Houdini artifacts were damaged. Barons Victor Temple and Nelli G went into damage control mode. After all, there was no proof the fire had been caused by an Anarch, and thus the truce, which was getting more and more strained every night, could continue just a little while longer. 

For Jasper, this fire was a message from Eva. It was her attack with the leylines, but taken to the next level. The rest of the coterie agreed. If nothing else, if Eva had been anywhere “at the source,” it would have been at the Magic Castle.

Jasper was afraid to try to contact Eva, but he didn’t feel like he had a choice. He had to know if she was alright. Nelli told Jasper that she was also trying to get in contact with her, but had thus far gotten nothing in reply. This did nothing to soothe Jasper's anxiety. 

Jasper’s hands shook as he typed his message to Eva. “If you’re still alive, meet me where we first met tomorrow night.” He added a black heart at the end before sending it.

That place was a small clearing in Griffith Park. Jasper had gone there, six years ago, wanting to see the night sky one last time before he would let himself be killed by the dawn. Instead, he had met the White Witch of Griffith Park, and he had suddenly been given something to live for again. She had, knowingly or unknowingly, made his unlife just bareable enough to endure its continuation. 

It crossed his mind that history might repeat itself. That was the best case scenario, really. He tried to hold onto the hope, fragile though it was. Nosferatu hands are not made for such delicate things, metaphorical or not.

He also had to prepare himself for the very real possibility that he might never see Eva again. She might have died in that fire, or if she lived, she might not want to come back to him. Coming up with worst-case scenarios seemed to be a Nosferatu skill on par with spying and stalking, and Jasper was an expert at that. What was he going to do? Keep on working for Nelli, and working with the others against the Camarilla? Or would he hide away, down deep underground, and never show his face to the outside world again? Would he let himself fall into torpor from hunger, his body withering deep in the bowels of the labyrinth he loved as much as he loved Eva?

Her last words to him at that party, her voice cracking with emotion, stuck with him. _“You have to trust me.”_

Jasper never received a reply to his text.

He left his sanctum as soon after sunset as he could and climbed the hill up into the park. He slipped, invisible as a phantom, between the trees and around rocks. It took him an hour to hike to the little clearing. He waited there, standing in the darkness, his fingers fidgeting with the ring she had given him. He couldn't see in the darkness as well as some Kindred could, so he was relying on his instincts, on his honed ability to never be surprised by an ambush. His chest and throat felt tight. The quiet peace of the night time park around his was at stark odds with his internal battle. He had to trust her, but what if she didn’t come? What if she was dust? What if she was alive, but didn’t want to see him again? What if? _What if?_

The clouds parted, revealing a thin crescent of a moon. It didn’t give much light, but enough so that Jasper caught a little movement through the trees. Then a figure stepped, ghost-like, into the little clearing. Jasper saw familiar long, white hair and a face that glowed in the faint moonlight. Eva. Her skirt and top were both bright red. She glanced to the left, then to the right, looking for him.

With a sigh that felt like a breath he had been holding since Baron Nelli’s party, Jasper revealed himself. Their eyes met across the clearing.

Eva reached for him. He could just make out a burn mark on her hand and arm. “Jasper?”

He didn’t speak. His long legs took him across the clearing in no time and then Eva was in his arms. She clung to him, despite the pain of her burn, her face buried in the layers of black shirts and hoodies on Jasper’s lean chest. His cheek was pressed to the top of her head.

“ _Oh_ , Jasper,” Eva sighed, her voice once again cracking with emotion.

His throat still felt tight, but with relief now instead of fear. “I’ve missed you… _so damn much_ ,” he growled.

“I’ve missed you too,” she said softly.

“Are you okay? What happened?”

“Yes. I… burned down the Magic Castle,” she admitted. Her tone held some regret, but not a lot.

Jasper pulled back a little and looked at the burn on her hand. It was half-healed already. He bit his lip. “So… what happened?”

“I… integrated myself back in. It took a while. I said all the right things. I begged them for forgiveness. And…” she sighed, mentally, emotionally and physically exhausted. “It was hard. My rage, I… all I wanted to do was electrocute them… and then my chance came, and… and when I did, I started a fire…”

Jasper swallowed hard. His hands were still holding onto Eva. He never wanted to let her go. Eva’s non-injured hand went to the jasper stone and sunflower necklace she still wore. There was a faint hairline crack in the glass vial that held the little dry flower. Jasper growled very softly.

“This broke… I’m sorry,” Eva’s voice cracked again.

“We’ll get it fixed,” he rasped. “Don’t worry.”

“I honestly don’t know how I got out of there,” Eva mumbled. “But… I’m here now. I’m back.”

Jasper’s mouth felt very dry. “So… are you done now? Are… are you…?”

“Am I what?”

“Are you coming home… w-with me?” Jasper didn’t know what he would do if she said ‘no.’ All those dark scenarios swam through his brain once again. “Is it safe for you to…”

Eva nodded, blinking back a blood tear. “Yes. I wouldn’t have come back if I didn’t think it was safe. I’ve missed you. I’m sorry but… it needed to be done.”

Jasper nodded. “I get it. I’ve missed you too. I… it’s been a long few weeks without you.” A small, slow smile appeared on his face. “Let’s go home.”

Eva nodded, but before they left, Jasper hugged her again, tight and close.

“Please… I mean, I can’t stop you from coming or going but… please don’t leave me again,” he growled softly.

“I don’t intend to,” Eva promised. She pulled out of the hug, but only to give him a kiss. Though it was brief, it was no less passionate. Jasper closed his eyes and rested his forehead against hers. He could picture her in the Magic Castle, filling the air with enough Zeus’ Fury to set the antique wooden chairs and tables aflame…

It was a terrifying thought. He rumbled deep in his chest and swallowed again.

“Shh… it’s alright,” Eva soothed him, stroking his gaunt cheek. “I’m here. I’m not going anywhere now. I… I meant it, you know, when I said that I love you… at the party.”

Jasper looked at her lovely, white face. “Yeah?” A faint gleam of hope, as frail as a glass snowflake, shone in his unnaturally pale eyes.

“Yes,” Eva confirmed. The last thing she wanted right then was to break that fragile hope she saw in him.

“I… meant it too. I don’t know if you heard me, but… I said it too.”

“I heard you,” Eva whispered.

“Good… I still mean it,” he said, just as softly.

Eva kissed him again. “Good. That’s good… can… can we go home now, please?”

Jasper’s face split into a proper fangy smile, his first in weeks. “Yeah.”

Hand-in-hand, Jasper led Eva back down towards their sanctum under the LA River.


End file.
